Amanda Simolari’s rising career as a dancer and choreographer was checked mid-flight this month by the storm that ravaged her adopted hometown.

Simolari, a 2003 Oliver Ames High School graduate, experienced firsthand the physical and emotional toll Hurricane Sandy took on even the toughest New Yorker.

By Susan Parkou Weinstein

The Taunton Daily Gazette, Taunton, MA

By Susan Parkou Weinstein

Posted Nov. 30, 2012 at 12:01 AM
Updated Nov 30, 2012 at 11:34 AM

By Susan Parkou Weinstein

Posted Nov. 30, 2012 at 12:01 AM
Updated Nov 30, 2012 at 11:34 AM

New York

» Social News

Amanda Simolari’s rising career as a dancer and choreographer was checked mid-flight this month by the storm that ravaged her adopted hometown.

Simolari, a 2003 Oliver Ames High School graduate, experienced firsthand the physical and emotional toll Hurricane Sandy took on even the toughest New Yorker.

The floodwaters swamped lower Manhattan, taking out subways, lights, heat and the roofs over many people’s heads.

It seemed everything was shut down. Simolari was out of work for a week. Several of her shows went black. Her tour of schools and a benefit to raise money for art in hospitals were cancelled.

And it forced the closing of one of Simolari’s favorite haunts - the Rockaway Theater Company in Rockaway Beach, Queens.

This community theater had brought happiness to so many residents in the area for so many years.

“Now, the theater is closed, suffering from inescapable damages from eight feet of salt water,” she said.

Looking for a way to help the victims of Sandy, the 27-year old Easton native returned to her roots. She asked the dance studio where she “grew up” for help.

Together, Amanda and the Dance Express on Eastman Street have launched a donation drive for Rockaway residents and to help the Rockaway community theater reopen.

Amanda says she will personally take all donations to New York to those affected in Rockaway, even if she has to rent a truck to do so.

“There will be no intermediary organization, your donations will truly make a difference,” she said.

A month after the superstorm blew through New York and New Jersey, the suffering is far from over. Amanda is worried the lucky ones will go back to work and shop for the holidays and settle into their normal routines.

“This doesn’t change the loss that people suffered. Especially during the time of year with food on the table and heat in the house, we must remember to not only give thanks for our blessings but share them,” she says.

While people need food and shelter and clothing to live, the arts feed the soul. Music and dance have played a huge role in the life of Simolari, who Margaret and Richard Simolari adopted from South Korea when she was only eight months old.

In high school, she was in the show choir, chorus and orchestra. She danced and played violin and piano. Her parents used to take her to plays at Wheaton College and musicals at Oliver Ames. The theater is an escape from the daily routine, a chance to leave reality and indulge in a real world fantasy world, she says.

Rockaway Theater is Wheaton College and Oliver Ames High School.

“Easton is a wonderful community that I am grateful to have grown up in. Please continue your generosity for Rockaway residents and their theater!” she said. “There are still so many in need, every single donation will make a difference.”